Alright, look, I've been planning this project for a while, and finding the right entry point is not easy. It's like, oh, gee, this random as fuck newcomer decided to start writing about OUR TOWN? NOT ON MY WATCH, AMERICA, SOMEONE GET TRUMP ON THE HORN ASAP. Whatever, fuck you, I know a lot about music and you are going to love this blog, so grab a cold domestic beer in a can and a bag of chips, sit back and put your feet up and get ready to just enjoy your damn life, ok?

Last night I went to a little show at Bunker Brewery on Anderson Street, specifically to see Sterling Black, who I love. My Saturday night started by getting kicked out of the library at fucking 4:55pm because those assholes hate reading and knowledge and don't stay open until 7pm on Saturday like they do on the rest of the days. Whatever, I was done anyway, I don't even need you, Library. So as I wandered the streets, distraught and deprived of words, I bumped into some friends who ALSO love Sterling Black and as a result of this mutual love of a singular thing, three adult humans agreed to go to this show.

But fucking, can we get straight on something? Bands, FOR THE LOVE, post what time the show starts and who plays in what order. This particular show was woefully bereft of public online information, and on the Facebook invite, Sterling Black was listed last, which to me, as a ravenous consumer of shows, means they're playing first. That's another thing. Headliners first on the bill, man. Jesus, do I have to do everything around here? It's like you don't even care. But so anyway we spend a good enough amount of time trying to figure out when we should get there, we haul ass down there to be there at show start 7pm to see the band we came to see and it's 7:30 when we arrive and the show hasn't started yet oh and also Sterling Black plays last.

It's cool though because there are some other bands, and their names are Great Western Plain and Sunset Hearts. I'm not going to spend any time on them other than to say that it really pays to get an objective, outside-the-band sound person on board when you're doing ANY kind of show, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Sunset Hearts play in a real venue with a better sound situation. I question their need for a person who just (wo)mans an ipad, but I may change my mind on that once I can pick out what the ipad is doing amongst the jumble. I liked them, is what I'm saying. I want to love them. But love takes work, you know? This isn't a goddam Nora Ephron movie. Here's Sunset Hearts with some cool thing that the little lights are doing:

So these two bands play and 10pm rolls around and Sterling Black ends up being relegated to playing on the the inside of this Bunker that is a Brewery because the cops came and shut the outdoor situation down. I missed all of that because I was too busy waiting for the bathroom and avoiding a really drunk woman who was desperate to publicly discuss her sex life with my friends and me. So anyway, all of this is leading up to me telling you that the show was not good because SB is way too loud for a 10x10 foot space and the sudden change meant a last minute teardown/setup of whatever their PA situation was which meant you couldn't hear any vocals and very little bass, and it kind of derailed the whole thing. I hung on through four or five songs but my ears were in physical pain and I had to give up on them. Pretty much everyone else had the same idea too because I was one of like three or four people who were left in the room by the time I went outside. Here they are, bunker interior:

But what sucks about this is that I've seen SB before and they are wild, and sweaty, and playful and sour, and they play an unlikely type of creative punk music that bends the genre in a really satisfying way. These guys would have you believe that they're some kind of shitty garage band, but they employ breaks and musical sequences that are from a far more complex and orchestrated kind of music - a prog rock baby that grew up with punks. Their whole, "BEHOLD, FOR HERE WE ARE WITH ZERO FUCKS TO GIVE, ABANDON ALL HOPE" is crazy fun for the sheer fact that when you walk through that door you get an incredibly tight garage punk band that is melodic and danceable but surprising in its compositional quirks and features a psychedelic atonal saxophone and a singer who can scream in pitch. Look, I don't fucking get it either. Just go see them. Here's a pic of them I snapped at Empire a few months ago:

So in conclusion, I'm firmly of the opinion that Sterling Black needs to be on a stage with a PA whose primary resting place isn't in the back of a white 16 passenger van, and that you and I need to be there when they are - I think they have a show or two coming up, I don't know, check their fucking web site, don't be lazy. And the other thing I don't get is that the door guy was like, "yeah, the cops come every time we do a show here." Uh, ok? That's weird that they keep doing them then. I mean I can't hate on Bunker Brewing, the beer was stupid good and they had this hanging in the bathroom: